Thanks... that was helpful. But in a sense, I now realize that I did sorta have a good shot at the answer already:
The doctrine of celestial marriage states that only those who are bound in celestial marriage can achieve the highest levels of Heaven. Also, anyone who isn’t Mormon is going straight to Hell, since all other churches are of the “great apostasy.” So any marriage to a non-believer will deprive the Mormon of the highest heaven. So even if there is not an obedience which calls for divorce, one can infer that it must be God’s will.
(Contrast this with Catholicism which holds that love expended in such a marriage will not only help the Christian draw closer to Christ, but also serves as a sign of hope for the salvation of the non-believer.)
Or am I wrong? I admittedly know little about Mormonism that I didn’t learn in response to FR posts. It *is* true that Mormonism doesn’t hold the same horror for divorce that Catholicism (formally) does, isn’t it? Is there some other doctrine I don’t know about that throws a chink into my logic?
THE SPIRIT WORLD AND THE THREE DEGREES OF GLORY.
"When mortals complete their sojourn on earth and pass through the portal called death, they enter the postmortal spirit world. As part of the Plan of Salvation, the Lord set a time between death and the resurrection when men and women can continue their progression and further learn principles of perfection before they are brought to the final judgment (Alma 40:6-21). Jesus Christ went to the postmortal spirit world while his body lay in the tomb to preach the gospel to them (1 Pet. 3:19-20; 4:6; D&C 138:11-37) so that those spirits in the postmortal spirit world could hear and accept or reject the gospel.
Since baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, temple Endowment, and sealing are earthly ordinances, Latter-day Saints perform the ordinances vicariously for the dead in their temples (see ). Because individuals differ so widely in their obedience to God's commandments, LDS theology rejects the traditional Christian concepts of the single option of heaven or hell in explaining the final destiny of souls (see ). Through a vision given to the Prophet Joseph Smith (D&C 76), the Lord has shown, as he also revealed to Paul, that there are several degrees of glory in mankind's eternal reward (D&C 76; cf. 1 Cor. 15:42).
The Plan of Salvation was created by the Father, brought into reality by the atoning sacrifice of his Beloved Son, and facilitated by the gifts of the Holy Ghost. It embraces the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement, including the , and sweeps across all time from the to the final state of immortality and eternal life"
It *is* true that Mormonism doesn’t hold the same horror for divorce that Catholicism (formally) does, isn’t it?
No, because to mormonism, there are other "sins" that keep a soul from attaining "exaltation", commission of which keep mormons from being allowed entry into the temples where the required ordinances are performed. Divorce is not noted among them.